Reports: Israel Upping Military Campaign in Syria

After months of relative calm largely attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, Israel is again reportedly upping its military campaign against Iranian-linked assets in Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Jerusalem was “likely responsible” for strikes on Sunday that killed nine Tehran-backed fighters less than 24 hours after a similar attack along the Syria-Iraq border reportedly killed six people. Both assaults took place in the Abu Kamal region in eastern Syria, an Iranian stronghold used as a conduit for the smuggling of advanced weaponry into the war-torn country. The first series of attacks came after a reported visit to the area by Esmail Ghaani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. Satellite images released last month appeared to show that Tehran was building an underground weapons storage facility at the Imam Ali military base located near Abu Kamal.